Researching. Researching. Researching. fosteronfilm had to drag me out of the library last night for dinner. There’s just so many papers and articles I need to read, and those spin me off into online ad hoc research. Don’t have time to eat, dammit.
I remember why I chose this area in college; I’m finding the subject matter utterly fascinating. Although I noticed that I’m not even bothering to go over the statistics sections of research papers; I just jump to the conclusion paragraphs. I have a feeling all those advanced stats classes are well and goodly flushed out of my system. Sigh.
Writing Stuff
basletum is interviewing me for his “Giving it Meaning” column at The Sword Review. Been pondering my answers between reading Dev. Psych. articles. I’m trying to convey my philosophy that having an insightful, relevant theme is what lifts a story from the realm of entertainment into that of art without sounding all highfalutin’ and ostentatious. The thing is, I do believe there’s nothing wrong with a story just being entertainment; a lot of mine are, and I make no apologies about it. But I think I’m coming across as pretentious. Maybe I just need to embrace my inner beatnik.
Received:
– Contract from GrendelSong for “Shim Chung the Lotus Queen.”
– Reprint sale of “Only Springtime When She’s Gone” to Apex Online. This’ll go up in May to accompany my “Featured Writer” interview. Yay!
Oh, I really enjoyed ‘Only Springtime When She’s Gone’ – I can’t remember where I read it, but you must have had it on an online market at some point. 🙂 Good choice!
Yeah, it first appeared in the now-defunct anaisdotmfk.com, and got reprinted in Neometropolis. I’m glad you liked it!
I noticed that I’m not even bothering to go over the statistics sections of research papers
Abomination!
Tbtthhhh!
What pretentious about saying that? People say it about paintings, don’t they? That what seperates the ones in the Moma from the ones in hotels is that there’s skill and meaning in one of them…right?
I’m sure artists do paintings, too, where there’s no intention of a theme. It’s just, “that’s pretty!”
I guess it seems to me that a person asking a writer what seperates ‘art’ from chaff is asking the writer to be pretentious. So I would feel…cheated, being framed as pretentious and then also having to worry about sounding pretentious.
“I guess it seems to me that a person asking a writer what seperates ‘art’ from chaff is asking the writer to be pretentious. So I would feel…cheated, being framed as pretentious and then also having to worry about sounding pretentious.“
Hee! Now that’s a different perspective, pretension as desired commodity. Me, I can’t take people seriously if they sound too intense and zealous, especially about art, so I try to avoid doing it myself. assures me I didn’t go overboard with my answers, so I’ll quit fussing.
Embracing your inner beatnik seems the only way to go, except you’re too young to be a beatnik. Maybe you’re a reincarnation of a beat-chan? I, on the other hand, can beat away with Dobey Gillis, Maynard G. Crebs (sp?) and the Thinker (and I have the weird Peruvian earrings to prove it).
Ooo, weird Peruvian earrings! A true badge of beatnik-hood. I bow to your superior beatness, cool dadio
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Age before beauty, always!
I didn’t notice anything pretentious. I think every reader will find something in this interview that’s useful.
Yay! And thanks for humoring the frettings of this interviewee.
You’re most welcome.
I always jump to the conclusion paragraphs with history papers, too. Then I decide whether or not to read the rest of the paper.
I think everyone mostly just reads the abstracts and conclusions of all those academic papers, no matter what appalled university professors around the world might protest otherwise.
Abstracts, conclusions and introductory matter are there to keep you from wasting your time. And the stats are just there in case you want to pick a fight with the authors (or have an alternate explanation…)
Amen, brother!